Montco budget adopted; Legal Aid office saved

NORRISTOWN — Montgomery County Commissioners unanimously adopted a $409.6 million budget Thursday that restores some funding to area agencies which had been targets for cuts.

The budget does not raise taxes.

At least two agencies with Pottstown offices — The Women’s Center of Montgomery County and Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania — received contracts with the county under the new budget.

The contracts make up at least part of the cuts they were facing as a result of the county commissioners’ decision to eliminate all “earmarks” from the budget and may allow them to keep their Pottstown services at the current level.

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For example, Legal Aid received a contract worth as much as $200,000 “for assistance with housing-related legal matters” and another contract worth up to $70,000 for case coverage assigned by courts to represent lower income parents in Juvenile Court and Orphans/Juvenile Court.

That makes up for most of the $281,700 the agency was expected to lose as a result of the earmark elimination under the budget proposed last month.

Legal Aid provides legal help to those without enough money to pay for a private attorney.

Also receiving a contract was the Women’s Center, which shelters and advocates for victims of domestic abuse.

Executive Director Maria Macaluso said Commissioners Chairman Josh Shapiro called the agency last week to see if anything could be worked out.

“We explained that we help fill out the paperwork for Protection from Abuse Orders, about 1,000 per year, and that if we didn’t do it, the Prothonotary’s office would have to, so he said he thought the county could pay $10 per order,” Macaluso said.

Although the agency still comes out with $13,000 less than it received from the county in the current year, Macaluso said she believes the $10,000 contract would allow the Pottstown office to remain open for at least part of the day on Fridays.

She had told The Mercury previously that the loss of $23,800 would force her agency to close the Pottstown office on Fridays.

“To be honest I’m not sure yet, but we’re looking at some things that might be able to make up that loss, perhaps sub-letting some of our space, so I think we’ll be able to weather this year and keep Pottstown open at least half a day on Fridays,” she said.

In a release from the commissioners office, Commissioners Chairman Josh Shapiro said the staff researched the issue and discovered that the earmarks to 20 agencies that were routine in previous budgets are not authorized under the Second Class County Code.

Also, “such transfers of taxpayer dollars are further prohibited by provisions of the Pennsylvania State Constitution,” Shapiro said.

However, the law does allow the county to enter into formal contracts with those organizations.

“This is in keeping with what I and the other commissioners have said since we began this budget process — that the county must focus its limited resources on providing the core services of government,” Shapiro said in the release. “That is why we have worked closely with several of these organizations over the past few weeks to do just that.”

Shapiro told The Mercury Friday that the commissioners “had been looking at a service-provider model for some time, but the public hearings and private discussion we had helped us with our decision.”

He added, “in particular, we wanted to make sure the residents of Pottstown had access to legal aid and the contract we signed with them will ensure it will stay open.”

Macaluso praised Shapiro and the other commissioners for reaching out.

“I received a call from Commissioner Shapiro. He’s always been a supporter and has attended our events, and he was very compassionate and asked us about the services we provide to see if there was any way the county could contract with us for some of those services,” Macaluso said.

“I realize they were facing some tough decisions and the non-profit community really came together and worked to ensure that we could try to work something out,” she said.

But it wasn’t all good news.

To date, no contracts have been announced for other agencies that suffered under the budget ax, including the 50-plus-year-old Camp Rainbow outside Schwenksville, that provides a camp experience for disadvantaged youth, and the Pennsburg-based community aid agency, The Open Line.

Representatives of many of the agencies attended a public hearing to plead for the funding necessary to their agencies.

The budget the commissioners adopted had other changes from previous years as well.

It puts $2.5 million back into the county’s reserve fund, which had once stood at nearly $100 million, but had shrunk to $20 million during the previous four years, which led to a downgrading in the county’s bond rating.

The budget also makes a contribution to the employee pension fund for the first time in four years, an issue often raised by Commissioner Bruce Castor.

Additionally, benefits for employees were improved at no additional cost to them as a result of health insurance savings realized through the county’s new broker, according to the commissioners’ release.

This was accomplished, Shapiro said, despite the “mess” the Democratic majority inherited from the previous administration.

That included a $10 million budget shortfall “that necessitated immediate cuts; crumbing county buildings that will require at least $50 million in repairs and an emergency radio system requiring at least $45 million to upgrade,” Shapiro said.

The county actually had to borrow money during the new commissioners first month in office “just to make the initial payrolls and pay operating expenses,” said Shapiro.